Dramatic Unmask

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Harley Quinn: Ain'tcha gonna take his mask off and find out who he [Batman] is? The Joker: And reduce my primal enemy to a mere man? Harley my dear, I'm so disappointed in you. Where's the fun in that?

When a masked character takes off his mask, revealing his identity to a shocked character and audience.

When The Hero decides to invoke the Dramatic Unmask it can be the moment they finally chose to reveal their secret identity to an ally or love interest. A gesture of trust that understandably means a lot within crimefighting circles. Their enemies will often attempt to unmask them in the hopes of making them more vulnerable by endangering not only their life but that of the hero's loved ones. Exposing a hero can also have the added benefit of having the authorities attempting to incarcerate them. After all, they are vigilantes.

In the case of the villain the big reveal may be the final part of their plan. A old face come to haunt the hero from the past or worse someone they trusted. Expect villainous characters to be especially smug if this is a complete surprise to their opponent. When the villain desires to hide behind anonymity, expect the protagonist to be the one to go about unmasking him, sometimes at any cost, so that justice is served.

Across media there is a tendency to conveniently overlook why an individual isn't unmasked when he or she's at the mercy of their foe earlier in the story. This is more commonly seen with villains, who despite having the time to put their unconscious victim into an elaborate Death Trap, don't take a moment to remove a mask. Justified in that it's done for the sake of preserving drama and most audiences will let it slide to prolong the guessing game. In some cases the rivals will even lampshade their desire not to learn the others identity as it would reduce their Arch-Enemy to being a normal person rather than their larger than life alter-ego. Although in some stories this is precisely why they want to unmask their nemesis.

Subverted in Cromartie High School: a new guy comes to Cromartie and claims to have changed in his personality, re-igniting certain principles of badness once lost in the students. They don't know who the heck he is, though, because they've never seen his face before - because Masked Takenouchi realizes that he forgot to put on his mask.

Inverted in Death Note, where Near dons a dramatic mask for Light's benefit.

In Eyeshield21, Sena reveals that he is the titular Eyeshield 21 to his childhood friend Mamori, just before the match against the Bando Spiders.

Subverted in a filler episode of Naruto, where Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke spend an entire episode debating what secret Kakashi might possibly be hiding under his mask: abnormally thick lips, buck teeth or some other facial anomaly. They try and trick him to take it off but have all of their plans fail, until he finally offers to remove it. Under is mask is... another mask.

This is a common occurrence in the more plot-involved arcs of Detective Conan due to characters existing on both good and bad sides who are masters of disguise. Often the disguises are used to protect the identities of the main characters when facing off against the Black Organization, and usually the masks will come off once they're no longer necessary. One of the more notable instances is in episode 345, where Heiji had disguised himself as Shinichi, Conan was disguised as Haibara, and Vermouth had been Dr. Araide for multiple appearances. All three of them end up dramatically unmasking during the events of that night.

At the beginning of the finale in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo, Vinegar Doppio walks behind a pillar when approaching Polnareff and emerges from the other side as Diavolo, the main villain of the storyline. Even though the audience is in on this at this point it comes as a huge shock to Polnareff.

After Kinnikuman defeats Warsman with the Kinniku Buster, Warsman struggles to his feet, relates his tragic backstory (Especially dramatic as he had been The Voiceless until then), and removes his own mask, revealing his circuit board face. As this was a mask-removal death match, it's a signal of surrender.

At the end of the "Here Comes the Squirtle Squad" episode of Pokémon, the leader of the eponymous delinquents shows up trailing the heroes. After Ash offers him to join his team, Squirtle removes his Triangle Shades, showing off his huge eyes, before running up to embrace Ash.

Partly Spider-Man during Marvel's Civil War arc. While it has this effect on the people watching him in the story (and is a Dramatic Unmask in delivery), the readers already know who he is.

Played perfectly straight, however, when the Green Goblin originally unmasked himself as Norman Osborn during Stan Lee's original run on the title after Steve Ditko left and John Romita Sr. took over on art.

A unique version is the famous ending of the first issue of Thunderbolts as Citizen V enters with his face unmasked to reveal a horribly scarred visage. Seeing the discomfort of his team, V decides to put on another mask...the mask of Baron Helmut Zemo, revealing the Thunderbolts are the Masters of Evil in disguise.

Batman, who is Crazy-Prepared is seldom dramatically unmasked. The plot contrives to stop those who would unmask him before it happens. Or he's wearing another mask under the first one so he remains masked even if he removes the cowl. This makes it much more dramatic on the rare occasions when the mask does come off — most memorably when he pulled it off himself to show Joe Chill, his parents' killer, who he really was.

Him not figuring the finer details about it this how Hugo Strange figured out his Secret Identity, by... pulling his mask off.

He's sometimes Crazy-Prepared enough to cover his upper face with paint or another mask in anticipation of being unmasked, so as to still conceal his identity. One time when Batman was trapped at gunpoint by Gotham Police and they ordered him to unmask himself. He did it... only to reveal a blond guy who is nothing like Bruce Wayne.

Sometimes in the animated series, he wears a mask over his cowl, so he can take the former off dramatically before kicking the bad guys' asses.

Once, Batman fought the Red Hood to a standstill; during which RH managed to strip Bats of one glove and his utility belt before ripping his mask off. Stoically, Bruce made no attempt to cover his face. His secret was safe, however: The street they're fighting on was empty and the Red Hood, aka Jason Todd, already knew.

...who himself has just performed his own Dramatic Unmask, with a twist: he's wearing a Domino Mask under his helmet, which of course doesn't hinder Batman recognizing him in the least. Later, a villain asks him why he wears a mask under his helmet, to which he answers:

Red Hood: I did it once for dramatic effect and then it just got to be a habit.

In Grant Morrison's run on Batman and Robin spent twelve issues building up speculation around who mysterious masked man Oberon Sexton was, with many readers speculating that it might be Bruce Wayne himself. In a dramatic unmasking, he is revealed to be The Joker.

During Batman: No Man's Land, when the people left in Gotham after the earthquake were left to form communities and territories and fend for themselves, Commissioner Gordon feels betrayed by Batman, thinking that he had abandoned them for a while. They meet in Gordon's yard for a confrontation that lasts an entire issue, laying bare what each means to the other, culminating in Batman trying to earn his friend's trust by removing his mask. Gordon refuses to look, but appreciates the gesture, and they make up.

During the Hush arc Batman finally unmasks to Catwoman thereby progressing their relationship.

In one issue, Batman forgot who his secret identity was due to a Tap on the Head. When he looked under the mask he didn't recognize the face, but found out through police records that he was actually a low-life snitch. As soon as he suspected that something wasn't right he had a closer look, removed the makeup and found his own familiar face. The world's greatest detective, staring intensely in the mirror, was unable to realize that his face and balding head was a disguise.

An issue of Young Justice has a group of young heroes on a camping trip playing Truth or Dare. Robin is challenged to remove his mask. Turns out he's as Crazy-Prepared as Batman himself and has decided to wear an inner mask for the occasion to preserve his identity.

This is the emotional climax of JLA: Year One. The newly-formed League is struggling with confusion and mistrust; disheartened, they start to turn away from each other...and Flash pulls off his cowl and announces his name. After a beat, the others follow suit.

Also used in JLA: Tower of Babel, in what is essentially Mark Waid riffing on his own earlier storyline a generation later. In Year One the breakdown in trust is caused by Martian Manhunter making contingency plans against every super on the planet and an enemy making use of them; in Tower of Babel the same thing happens with Batman's countermeasures. Batman leaves the League in the aftermath, but later rejoins after allowing everyone into the Batcave with all the computer files unlocked, and revealing himself as Bruce Wayne.

While everyone is pretty gobsmacked at that, that's nothing to the reactions when Clark Kent introduces himself. Most of the younger League didn't realize Superman even had a secret identity.

In the "Trial of The Flash" story arc, the Flash was forced to unmask when he was on the witness stand. Fortunately, he had just been in a horrific battle with a baddie, destroying his face, and had taken the opportunity to get plastic surgery; so he reveals a face that looks nothing like Barry Allen's.

Subverted/lampshaded in the Buffy Season 8 comics: Twilight starts to unmask himself, but only because his neck itches. He never lifts it past his chin.

Played straight in the penultimate story arc when he unmasks himself as Angel.

One famous Subversion comes from the flashback of the first battle between Diabolik and Ginko: at the end of a long chase Ginko did manage to arrest Diabolik and promptly took away the mask of his suit, but Diabolik, anticipating the possibility, was wearing one of his masks. As at the time the masks weren't known to the police Ginko didn't even suspect, and wouldn't until much later, when he raided one of Diabolik's hideouts and found that very mask along a few others.

Defied in Paperinik New Adventures: Paperinik once admitted he's tempted to do it and reveal his identity to his girlfriend Daisy or even retire, but as he's extremely protective of his loved ones he'll never do it for fear of endangering them.

Films — Animated

Meet the Robinsons: Parodied when Bowler Hat Guy dramatically rips his clothes in front of Wilbur to reveal he is still wearing the same baseball uniform that he used when he was Goob, Wilbur’s roommate at the orphanage.

Khan's removal of his mask in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. For a reveal where it's doubtful that anyone didn't realize who it was going to be, Ricardo Montalban still does it masterfully.

Inquisitor Makkabeus from Damnatus, twice, as he rips it off again during his battle of wills with Nira.

Parodied in The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (a bad Sherlock Holmes spoof, featuring Holmes's incompetent great-grandson and Watson's incompetent grandson). At the end, Watson strips off his Latex Perfection disguise—he's really Mrs. Hudson, the housekeeper, and she's really an American villain out to destroy the world.

One classic example is more a classic unhooding in The Adventures of Robin Hood, when the King reveals himself to the Merry Men. The shedding of a stark plain black cloak for the bright red and gold tunic and armor makes for a powerful impression.

At the end of the original Halloween (1978), Michael Myers is finally unmasked to reveal...a surprisingly attractive man.

The Scream series is probably one of the biggest examples, having all seven killers of the franchise unmask themselves to the ever-Final Girl Sidney Prescott, either by attacking her directly, or by killing one of her friends in front of her.

The only exception is Charlie from Scream 4, who reveals himself to the audience (but not Sidney) by stabbing his Ship Tease and leaving her for dead. He does promptly reveal himself to Sidney right afterwards, though.

Played for Laughs in Spaceballs. Our introduction to the villainous Dark Helmet (a spoof of Darth Vader) starts with Helmet walking past his terrified bridge crew, with cuts to their freaked-out faces. Through it all, we hear the heavy sound of him breathing. Once Helmet gets close enough to the camera, his breath becomes raspy, and he flips up his scary visor, showing the geeky face of comedian Rick Moranis. Mood Whiplash at its finest.

Dark Helmet: I can't breathe in this thing!

Princess Leia reveals herself to Han Solo and to the audience at the beginning of Return of the Jedi

Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens. Paralleling his maternal grandfather, Ren covers his face with a mask for much of the film. He does remove it eventually, and the reveal is an effective contrast to the elderly, disfigured Vader. Physically, Ren is an unremarkable, handsome young man.

In Gladiator, the title character is forced by his arch-enemy to reveal his identity in the Colosseum. Epic Badass Boast follows.

A porn parody Gladiator Eroticus spoofs this scene by having the title character hide behind a series of masks, false beards and a large axe before being exposed.

Chris Wooding's Broken Sky series has one of these at the end of Act One, where Ryushi learns that the Spirit-Mask Warrior; the one responsible for killing his father is, in fact, his elder brother Takami.

The Saga of Arrow-Odd: As king of Greece, Odd vows that he will find out the true identity of the mysterious King Quillanus of Novgorod, a great conqueror who always wears a mask. Odd lands an army in Russia and challenges Quillanus to a tournament. After three days of indecisive jousting, both agree that they are equally strong, and Quillanus suggests they make peace with each other. Odd wants to accept on the condition that Quillanus reveals his true identity to him. Quillanus takes off his mask, revealing the scarred face of Odd's arch-enemy Ogmund Eythjofslayer.

Ivanhoe: Richard the Lionheart has returned to England from the Crusades and reveals himself rather dramatically to his brother John and the noblemen who betrayed him

Live Action TV

Power Rangers does this for a lot of Sixth Rangers. A particularly memorable one is the White Ranger from the second season, who turns out to be Tommy.

It's also quite dramatic when a Ranger is forced to unmask (or re-mask) and reveal his or her identity to a friend or family member who has been outside the loop thus far. Particularly memorable is Wes's cracked helmet revealing his identity to his father and Eric.

The Mexican talk show Contrapunto ended up playing host to one of these in 1984 when longtime lucha libre icon El Santo publicly unmasked for the first time in his 50 year career. This is widely considered to have been Santo's way of saying goodbye to his fans as he died a week later from a heart attack.

Leela does this to Magnus Greel in the Doctor Who serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang. Sharaz Jek does this to himself in The Caves of Androzani. Neither result is pretty. For a more pretty result, look at the Pangol clone unmasking itself to Romana at the end of "The Leisure Hive", revealing a flatteringly made-up Fourth Doctor with nude lipstick on (a very lovely sight after he'd spent half the story accidentally aged to the point where his body was going to regenerate of old age).

Music

The cover of KISS Unmasked is done comic book style, where the members of KISS take off their masks to reveal their true faces...which look just like their masks.

Video Games

In Xenosaga episode III, the Red Testament takes off his mask and reveals himself to be Kevin, Shion's dead lover.

Also in Xenosaga episode III, the White Testement removes his mask, revealing himself to be Albedo, the Big Bad of the second game. A Genre Savvy gamer would have been able to guess his identity before hand, however.

The Shyguy victory animation from Mario Power Tennis actually shows him walking up to the podium where Luigi will give him his trophy, but he trips on the last step before the top, causing his mask to fall off. Luigi sees the Shyguy's face (but the player doesn't) and is freaked out before the Shyguy puts his mask back on and takes his trophy.

In Persona 5, after the first phase of the fight with Shadow Shido, the Protagonist dramatically removes his mask to reveal he is the high school student who Shido framed for assault after he stopped him from sexually assaulting a woman.

In Phi's ending of Virtue's Last Reward, K takes off his mask and armor to reveal that he is the old woman. This is surprising because in K's own ending, which is required in order to unlock the Phi ending, Sigma took off K's mask and saw his own face.

In Dishonored, the player has the option to do this if they confront Hiram Burrows directly in his safehouse.

In Mass Effect 2, Archangel's recruitment mission sees him remove his helmet and reveal his identity to Commander Shepard. It's Garrus Vakarian, squadmate from the first game and a good friend of Shepard's.

In Final Fantasy XIVA Realm Reborn, the Ascian Lahabrea removes his mask and hood after the Player Character's rescue mission in a Garlean base, to reveal Thancred underneath.

In Until Dawn, the Psycho takes off his mask and it's revealed to be Josh. He also reveals that almost everything that the main cast experienced was a prank, trying to get even on them for inadvertently leading Beth and Hannah to their deaths.

In Five Nights at Freddy's 3, rare startup screens show Springtrap partially unmasking himself to reveal a mummified human skull. At the end of the game, an inversion occurs revealing why: the Purple Man, cornered by the spirits, hides inside the only costume he can find — the Springtrap suit. And then the springlocks break...

Web Comics

Tarquin from The Order of the Stick invokes this when he reveals that he is Elan's father, and inadvertently plays it straight in front of Roy and Belkar, who see the family resemblance. Downplayed in the latter instance when they cover for their surprise by pretending to be stunned by his good looks.

In Astray3, Emily does this in the most dramatic way she can in order to stop a Powder Keg Crowd from hurting her friends. Ends up being chased for several chapters, but hey.

A flashback in Strong Female Protagonist centers on a variant that happened during a live television interview when (after fielding a series of public policy questions despite admitting repeatedly how out of her depth she was) a frustrated Mega-Girl rips off her Domino Masknote a rather symbolic gesture; announces her real name, age, and birthplacenote a considerably less symbolic gesture; tells everyone she has no idea what the fuck she is doing; and storms off the set.

Justice League and Justice League Unlimited: While neither character's Secret Identity is ever a plot point, both Hawkgirl's and The Question's unmaskings are presented as dramatic, romantic scenes.

Invoked but averted during the "Freaky Friday" Flip episode — Lex Luthor, while in The Flash's body, decides to take off his mask and check a mirror. However, he has no idea who he's looking at. Makes sense, as The Flash's identity, Wally West, is just a white collar worker in the DCAU, a forensics expert in Keystone City, not somebody Luthor would have any reason to even know he exists.

This is also an inside joke aimed at the actor who voices Flash in the JLA animated series, Michael Rosenbaum, who also plays Lex Luthor on Smallville.

Same thing once happened in the comics. Heat Wave, one of Barry Allen's Rogues, finally got his old enemy's mask off but didn't recognize him. (This can trigger a little Fridge Logic: why do bad guys think they'll recognize the hero with his mask off, anyway?) Barry then had to worry that the villain might someday put a name to the face he'd seen, but Heat Wave's eventual Heel–Face Turn removed that danger.

This trope backfired a little differently on Manfred Mota, a one-shot villain. Mota had fought the first two Flashes and thought they were the same man in different costumes. When he powered himself up to fight the third, he won easily, and triumphantly unmasked his foe to the public — who already knew. Wally West had recently made his identity public. Oops.

End of season 2: To avoid detection from an occupying army, Martian Manhunter suggests hiding in plain sight in civilian clothes. Not a problem for MM, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern, who don't have secret identities to begin with, leaving just Flash, Superman, and Batman. Flash expresses doubt, saying that while he trusts everybody, he's not sure if he's ready to reveal his identity. Batman, completely living up to his legacy, proceeds to list off their identities, ending with himself as he pulls off his cowl. As Flash puts it "...Showoff.".

The last episode of Batman Beyond had Terry pull off his mask during a rescue attempt in order to convince a kid that it was okay to trust him. Bruce is understandably livid, explaining that because: a) the kid knows what Terry looks like and b) he said he saw Batman's face when he was interviewed afterwards, every villain in the city will be after him for that information. It gets subverted when, subjected to a mental probe, the kid has already replaced Terry's face with the face of his favorite cartoon hero. However, its implied that this was only to throw off the villain, and the kid really did remember Terry's face but fooled the probe to protect Terry.

In The Legend of Korra, Amon's face is revealed twice. When Korra confronts him in the auditorium, she asks him to take it off and he does, but he has put suitable makeup on that makes it look like he got burned. However, the next time (and last time) his mask comes off is in the water in Yue Bay when he is thrown out the window of the pro-bending arena; his mask then floats to the surface.

Subverted in South Park: Cartman convinces fourth-grade superhero Mysterion to take off his mask and reveal his identity in order to prevent threats to public safety (à la The Dark Knight); Mysterion complies, only to reveal that because the face of every fourth-grader on the show looks exactly the same, it is impossible for the viewers to know his true identity. Cartman and the rest of the characters, however, recognize him immediately.

In a later episode, it is revealed that Mysterion is Kenny.

In Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Spidey unmasks himself because he wants to show trust to Angelica and Bobby, who he's figured out are Firestar and Iceman, respectively. And they're both shocked to discover he is Peter. Particularly Bobby.

Virtually every woman with a speaking part who isn't a regular on the old G.I. Joe cartoon was, in fact, either the Baroness or Zaranna in disguise, complete with a scene in which she pulled off a Mission: Impossible-style face mask to reveal her true identity to the always astounded Joes. Especially hilarious in one episode where a woman wearing glasses turned out to be the Baroness wearing her usual glasses under a mask which had its own pair of glasses.

Twice in one episode by Robin from Teen Titans, appropriately named Masks. He turns out to be Red X, wearing his Robin mask under the Red X mask. Unfortunately, it was insanely obvious since Scott Menville sounds the same in every role he plays.

In the Grand Finale of Danny Phantom, after Danny saves the world, he reveals his half ghost status to his parents, as well as a dozen other people. Fanon likes to exaggerate whether or not the whole world knows the truth.

Ben 10: Ultimate Alien features the return of villainous Time Master Eon. He's going from timeline to timeline, trying to wipe out every Ben Tennyson, not just the one who foiled him (who turns out not to be ours; Race Against Time was an AU.) His Mooks get unwillingly unmasked first; for the full impact, read the "someone else unmasks him" section first. No, really. We'll wait. Okay, after that, Eon gives us his Motive Rant, and finally takes off his own helmet: he is in fact also an alternate Ben, who feels There Can Be Only One. Of course, this clashes with the portrayal of Eon in Race Against Time, but this could always be a different Eon.

In an episode of Regular Show, Muscle Man's trailer is confiscated by a corrupt health inspector, who reveals himself to be the runner-up from the hot dog eating contest Muscle Man had won the trailer in years ago. Played for laughs as his "disguise" is literally just a pair of glasses, and the viewer didnt know he had existed 10 minutes ago when he was briefly seen in a flashback and no animosity of any sort was implied. What makes it even funnier is the dramatic music and Muscle Man's realization when the inspector reveals himself.

Spoofed in an episode of American Dad!, where Roger poses as a teacher and his Dead Poets Society teaching backfires and leads a student to murder his own father. Roger confesses that he's not really a professor and pulls the patches off the elbows of his jacket, to which the student reacts as if he had just unmasked.

An interesting aversion occurs in Jubei-chan season 2, Ninja Mikage manages to unmask Freesia in a fight....but Freesia is in her adult form, and has never used it for anything but fighting the main characters; so it's meaningless.

Yuri Killian does this in Kaleido Star to confirm his suspicion that the mysterious "masked performer" showing up his newly-bought Kaleido Stage is really Layla Hamilton, who allegedly quit performing.

At the climax of the first season of Code Geass, Suzaku shoots Zero's mask, splitting it in half and revealing Lelouch's face under it. This act is pretty much entirely symbolic, since it's all but said that Suzaku had already figured things out but didn't want to admit that Lelouch, his best friend since they were children, could be Zero.

In Sailor Moon, while Tuxedo Mask's identity is known rather early to the audience, some versions still do this scene.

The first anime has Zoicite knock off his mask - but in a subversion, nobody except Beryl and Zoicite see his face.

The manga actually does this out of order - after rescuing an unconscious Sailor Moon in battle, Tuxedo Mask takes her back to his apartment. When she wakes up, she sees Mamoru, still wearing some of his uniform but otherwise already unmasked. He lets her put his mask on his face as she puts two and two together.

In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Moon realizes who he is when they unknowingly replay an argument they've had earlier on in their civilian guises. She slowly reaches to unmask him and Mamoru realizing the jig is up, doesn't resist.

Bleach: Sajin Komamura blocks an attack on his friend using his helmet, breaking it apart and revealing that he is an anthropomorphic wolf. While the scene is played up a bit for drama, no one present actually cares what he looks like.

In Medabots, Space Medafighter X gets badly injured, and his golden mask begins to crack. When it is broken it reveals... a second, white mask! Space Medafighter X is really the Phantom Renegade!

This trope is toyed with in one point where it's strongly implied that the other characters have met Iron Mask Duval before. (Luffy even claims that the crew should know his face.) When Duval's helmet is finally kicked off, it turns out that Duval is a total stranger. The crew only knew his face because it was identical to the poorly done sketch used by the Marines for Sanji's wanted poster.

The CP9 reveal their true identities during the Water 7 arc in One Piece.

Roger Stern's original run on the Spider-Man comics of the 1980s introduced the Hobgoblin, the fourth replacement of the then-deceased original Green Goblin. Unfortunately, the mystery of the Hobgoblin's true identity was dragged out for literally years on end and as various writers and editors took the place of Stern and Danny Fingeroth, it was forgotten whom Roger Stern had intended the Hobgoblin to be. The way Tom DeFalco continued the saga made many people think that it was Ned Leeds, only Christopher Priest (then Jim Owsley) sabotaged that by summarily killing off Ned Leeds in Spider-Man vs. Wolverine #1. In the end the matter was dropped into Peter David's lap to resolve at short notice in one issue, and he decided that Leeds had been the Hobgoblin all along. It wasn't until Stern returned for a few issues to the Spider-titles years later that he had the real Hobgoblin returned and Spider-Man unmasked him as fashion mogul Roderick Kingsley. Many fans cheered, but many others reacted with: "Who???" The "real Hobgoblin" subsequently had his ass handed to him by the original Green Goblin (returning from the dead) and wasn't used in the mainstream Spider-books for the years, not returning until a brief appearance during "Big Time".

Subverting this is a Running Gag in Ultimate Spider-Man. Peter Parker gets dramatically unmasked frequently, but no one ever has any idea who he is, since he's just some high school student.

Subverted even more in the original Amazing Spider-Man series where Doctor Octopus unmasks him in front of the other students who immediately recognize Peter but refuse to believe a geek like him could possibly be Spider-Man. They even convince Doc Ock himself that he caught not the real Spidey but just some kid in a cheap costume, preserving Peter's secret.

In the Story ArcThe Trial of the Flash, Barry Allen's lawyer, having guessed who he is, decides this would be a huge mitigating factor; no jury will convict a man for saving his bride-to-be from his first wife's murderer. So she unmasks him in open court — to reveal a face we've never seen before. The explanation? Barry recently took severe facial damage in a fight and was fixed up by his friend Solovar in Gorilla City. At that time he asked for a favour, and now we know what it was: instead of repairing his old face, he had Solovar make him a new one, right down to the hair color. (Barry's life was a mess at this point, and he intended to start a new one after the trial.) This wrecks his lawyer's plan, but Barry is ultimately acquitted anyway, and he gets his old face back in time for his big Heroic Sacrifice in the Crisis.

Although, in the 2004 adaptation, many people found the unmasking during "The Point of No Return" more Narm than drama thanks to the Phantom looking like he has a slightly bloated face instead of the horrific disfigurement he acts like he has.

The Musical has Christine unmasking him twice, but only once can the audience see.

In the UK tour celebrating the show's 25th anniversary, she only does it once. The first time she sees him unmasked, he's removed it himself with his back to her and she pulls him to face her.

Films — Animated

Happens to Aladdin with his Prince Ali disguise (first by Jasmine, then by Jafar) although without an actual mask.

Cars 2 featured a variation of this: At the end of the film, Mater actually lifts up Miles Axlerod's hood to confirm the fact that he is really the evil mastermind behind the Lemons.

Films — Live-Action

William Wallace in Braveheart unmasks one of his opponents in the Battle of Falkirk, revealing him to be Robert the Bruce, who William thought was an ally.

The Legend of Zorro has the eponymous hero being captured and unmasked by the bad guys, who also have his wife and child in tow. Elena already knows his identity as do the audience; the only important character it's a reveal for is his son.

Both subverted and played straight in Spider-Man 2. While saving a train full of people, the lenses on his mask are damaged and he rips the whole thing off to see better. Later, when he's recovering with the help of the people he saved, it's not dramatic because no one recognizes him, and they give him his mask back in gratitude. Played straight later on when captured and brought to Harry Osborn who rips the mask off and does recognize him.

Bane's Red Right Handis his mask, so this trope is fulfilled by having him introduced as a bound and hooded prisoner. When the CIA agent realises his prisoner is a lot more important than some faceless goon, he takes off the hood to reveal Bane, breathing mask and all.

Bane unmasking Batman as Bruce Wayne in their first fight. Unlike normal variants, he does this verbally by saying, "Let's not stand on ceremony here.... Mr. Wayne."

The extended cut of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country reveals that the Klingon sniper at the peace conference is Colonel West, the Starfleet officer who proposed rescuing Kirk and McCoy and risking war with the Klingon Empire.

Ivanhoe: The title character hides his identity behind the visor of his helmet in a tournament. After the second day of fighting, he is unmasked by two zealous attendants. Also a Secret Stab Wound reveal.

Live Action TV

Done in the finale of The Prisoner with Number One. Turns out that Number One is a monkey. Only that happens to be a mask as well, so there's another Dramatic Unmask. This time, it reveals Number Six.

In an earlier episode, A, B, and C, Number Six's dreams are being tapped into and viewed by Number Two - in his dream, No. 6 makes a big show of unmasking the mystery man behind his resignation... Number Two! It turns out 6 got wise to the dream tapping technique and fixed it so he could consciously alter his dream and mess with his captors' heads.

On Jack-of-All-Trades, Captain Brogard once had the opportunity to rip off the mask of "the Daring Dragoon" and reveal his secret identity... except that Jack was wearing a second mask underneath the one Brogard ripped off!

Pinball

In Cirqus Voltaire, completing "Unmask Voltaire" reveals that the Ringmaster is actually Madame Voltaire, who was also the Announcer throughout the game.

Done by the player in The Phantom of the Opera. The glass is decorated on both sides, with the hat and mask on the front, and the Phantom's true face on the back. At certain times during the game, the flashers behind the glass light up, allowing spectators to see his disfigured face through the mask.

Video Games

Whenever Kirby defeats Meta Knight, his mask breaks apart and you see...Meta Knight is basically a blue-colored Kirby. How cute! He promptly wraps his cloak over his face and retreats.

Vega of Street Fighter has scenes like this. Though his identity is known anyway and the mask is only to protect his face, several adaptations of the games still make a big deal out of him being unmasked by other people and thus having to show his face. Some of the games let the player knock off the mask themselves. He also has a taunt where he takes off his mask himself, and his Time Over defeat pose has him remove the mask and crush it in his hand.

In the Water Path to Frozen Essence, Mina accidentally pulls off the Oracle's hood enough to see his face. The player doesn't recognize the character (whose face isn't shown in any other path), but Mina does and the shock is enough to break her out of her Trauma-Induced Amnesia.

In Persona 4, Yosuke tries to remove Teddie's mask, only to see it's empty inside.

In K's ending of Virtue's Last Reward, Sigma takes off K's mask only to find his own face behind it.

Upon defeating Dark Knight Alternis Dim in Bravely Default, his helmet splits apart to reveal his face is identical to Ringabel's.

In the final level of Splinter Cell Blacklist, Sadiq rips off the player character's mask to reveal it's not Sam Fisher, but his teammate Briggs who's been infiltrating Site F. Sharp-eyed players will have picked up on this already, and the point of who is behind the mask is equally important to why it's them.

When Midna confronts Cia in Hyrule Warriors, she ends up punching the witch square in the face with her Prehensile Hair, knocking her mask away and revealing that her face looks exactly the same as Lana's.

Spoofed in an episode. Roger poses as a college professor, but things go horribly wrong when his "seize the day" philosophy causes a student to murder his father. Near the end, Roger admits that he isn't even a professor, and demonstrates by ripping the patches off his jacket's elbows, causing the student to gasp in shock.

In Avatar: The Last Airbender episode "The Blue Spirit", Aang does this to the mysterious rescuer Blue Spirit, revealing Zuko, his main enemy.

In The Legend of Korra, Amon unmasks himself in order to reveal his scar in front of a shocked audience. The mask is knocked off a second time when Korra sends him out of a window and into the ocean. At this point, the scar is revealed to have been fabricated, and his true identity as Noatak is revealed.

Subverted many times in the Belphegor series. Each time the protagonists corner Belphegor to unmask him or come close to uncovering his identity, it turns out either that the unmasked man isn't really him or he manages to destroy the evidence of his identity before they get to it.

In The Legend of Zelda episode "Sing For A Unicorn" Sing attacks Link and Zelda, and they presume she's a monster for a short while. When they work out she's human they grab her and unmask her in such a style that it's a Shout-Out to Scooby-Doo.

Parodied in The Mask, where Pretorius tries pulling off the hero's mask only to find another thing below (a skull, another mask). At one point, alter-ego Stanley Ipkiss's face is seen... but the hero removes that, as it is another mask.

Subverted in ReBoot when Bob removes Hexadecimal's mask. There's nothing underneath it and energy erupts out of the hole where the mask was. Bob has to put the mask back on her to stop her from exploding.

This is mandatory in nearly every episode of Scooby-Doo ever made. "Now let's see who you really are!" It's pretty much the Trope Codifier for most people.

Parodied (like everything else) in the Johnny Bravo/Scooby-DooCrossover, which had them pulling off numerous masks off of one person, including this one exchange in the middle:

Slade is forcibly unmasked twice in Teen Titans, but both times are somehow twisted around into The Un-Reveal. In the first season, the shadows conveniently blocked his face from view, and in the fourth season, he was conveniently dead, and thus his face was nothing more than a skull.

Though he's already aware of her identity, Sentinel knocks off Blackarachnia's face-concealing helmet in Transformers Animated and reveals her mutated face to the audience for the first time. It's noteworthy in that Blackarachnia had spent the entire series lamenting how hideous she had become as a techno-organic, when in reality the only people who'd commented on her form thought she was smokin'. Under the helmet? It's pretty damn scary.

In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "The Clock King", it's clear Mayor Hill has no clue who the crazy guy that just put him into a Death Trap is. Until he takes off his glasses, at which point Hill does recognize him. Even though he's dressed the exact same way he was the last time Hill ever saw him... 7 years ago.

Spider-Man: The Animated Series had something similar to the comics situation, where Doc Ock unmasks Peter. However, this was during the Neogenic Nightmare arc and his powers were on the fritz. As such, when Ock saw his former student's face, that was the thing that confirmed for him it couldn't really be Spider-Man: It's just Peter, no wonder he was so easy to capture instead of leaping around and running on walls while quipping!

Ben 10: Ultimate Alien features the return of villainous Time Master Eon, as mentioned before, and he's on a mission to take down every Ben Tennyson in The Multiverse. His Mooks aren't the monkey guys from The Movie, but ninja-like warriors with lightsabers who never speak; Gwen and Kevin fight them. Finally, Gwen casts a spell that freezes them all, and de-helmets one of them. Well, now we know what he does with the alternate Bens he defeats. They're his brainwashed goons.

A very emotional example from Futurama when Leela corners two hooded mutants who she believes killed her alien parents. Fry, having figured out the truth, unmasks them, and reveals that they ARE her parents, having given her up to an orphanage under the guise of an alien child to give her a normal life, as aliens on Earth have the same rights as normal humans but mutants are forced to live underground in the sewers.

A Scooby-Doo parody episode has Daphne!Leela unmask the person she believes to be the culprit. Unfortunately, she just accidentally pulls off Zoidberg's head. Of course it's played for laughs. They then capture the villain and subvert this by wiping off the mask as if it were makeup.

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